Newly unearthed court documents from 2022 reveal significant contradictions from Democratic vice presidential nominee Gov. Tim Walz’s (D-MN) claims from when he was arrested for driving under the influence.
Walz previously blamed “deafness” for why he fled from police after being pulled over for driving drunk after going over 95 miles per hour in a 55-speed zone in 1995. He also claimed he was “not drunk,” despite failing a field sobriety test and a preliminary breath test.
The court documents note that Walz had “a strong odor of alcoholic beverage was detected emitting from Mr. Walz[‘s] breath and person” before being booked into Dawes County Jail.
At the time of the incident, Walz had an alcohol concentration of .128 percent, which is above the state’s legal limit of .08 percent.
The Democrat claimed he sped away from law enforcement because “Walz thought somebody was chasing him. The officer didn’t turn on his red lights, and he — somebody came up real fast behind him, and he didn’t know what they were doing” his lawyer Russell Harford claimed. “So he sped up to try to get away, fearing that somebody was after him. Lo and behold, it was a state patrolman that was behind him, so the faster he went, the faster the state patrol officer went.”
While campaigning for Congress in Minnesota’s First District in 2006, Walz came under fire for his legal troubles, which prompted him to lie about his DUI and flee from police.
Walz’s campaign manager insisted that the governor was “not drunk” and “attributed the misunderstanding to Walz’s deafness”— an issue Walz said was caused by his time in the National Guard that has since been “surgically corrected.”
His campaign manager also said that Walz’s “deafness” caused “balance issues.”
Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate was initially charged with a DUI before having the charges dropped to reckless driving after taking a plea agreement after admitting he “drove a vehicle in a manner as to indicate an indifference or wanton disregard for the safety of persons or property.”